The ghostly horseman haunting the A39 between Bridgwater and Street

For centuries, tales have circulated about the ghostly horseman who appears at various points along A39 riding a spectral steed before vanishing.

The phantom is said to be Thomas Pocock, a highwayman who lived in the area anywhere from the 1600s to the 1800s, depending on which version of the legend you’re reading. 

He was a regular West Country Robin Hood, who would rob rich travellers and share the spoils with the poor, looked after lost women and children and helped poor travellers who had wandered off the beaten track.

Several stories exist about his exploits - how he evaded capture for years by this kindness to the poor, and by putting his horse's shoes on backwards.

The trouble is, there are no records of Pocock ever existing.

Of course, that doesn’t mean much - records from the era that he was said to be the scourge of the rich are spotty at best.

“He was the terror of all the rich folk around.” (Image: Supplied)

He may have used an assumed name and may have travelled to Somerset from elsewhere. And, as a criminal, he was unlikely to be keen to fill in any paperwork.

So where did the story come from?

The first mention of the highwayman is in an 1839 publication with the catchy title A description of the priory of Chilton-super-Polden, and its contents: to which is added a miscellaneous appendix, containing several ancient documents not before published by William Stradling.

Stradling (1788–1859) was an antiquary and deputy lieutenant of Somerset who created the priory.

In the publication, he claims to have interviewed ‘an old man’ who explored a cave made of three caverns, a stable, a hall and a bedroom. He told Stradling the roof of the ‘stable’ had caved and sealed the cavern forever.

Stradling tells the story of the ‘brave Brigand’ and details a song about him sung by ‘peasants’ at Harvest Home festivals.

In Stradling’s retelling, Pocock isn’t given a first name, but the rest of the story remains the same. Ultimately, the highwayman is betrayed, tracked to his cave, beaten and dragged to the gallows.

There is no record of a Pocock being executed for highway robbery anywhere in the UK. In fact, there are few records of highwaymen operating in Somerset - only Thomas Lamprey and William Bryan, who were both sentenced to death in 1766.

But Pocock is far from the only thief who used Somerset as a hunting ground. And that’s where the story gets a little more interesting.

James Clace stole more than a hundred horses from their owners and sold them on. (Image: Supplied)

In 1902, Thomas Hardy wrote the ballad A Trampwoman’s Tragedy, which referenced the death of a Somerset horse thief named Blue Jimmy.

Florence Dugdale-Hardy, the second wife of the novelist, explained in an article that Blue Jimmy was the nickname of James Clace, a notorious horse thief linked to the Polden hills.

James was a “well-to-do” farmer who, despite his wealth, stole more than a hundred horses from their owners and sold them on.

He came before the court on 19 occasions before he was finally sentenced to death and was said to have stolen over 100 horses during his criminal career. He was hanged at Ilchester in 1827.

“Execution, Wednesday, April 25, 1827: James Clace, better known by the name of Blue Jimmy, suffered the extreme sentence of the law upon the new drop at Ilchester … Clace appears to have been a very notorious character” (this is a cautious statement of the reporter’s, quite unlike the exuberant reporting of the present day: the culprit was notorious indubitably).

Read more from Dark Somerset

A Victorian Christmas to leave you battered and bruised

Leopard on the loose in Taunton after it escapes the circus

“He is said to have confessed to having stolen an enormous number of horses, and he had been brought to the bar nineteen times for that class of offence…. In early life, he lived as a postboy at Salisbury; afterwards he joined himself to some gipsies for the humour of the thing, and at length began those practices which brought him to an untimely end; aged 52.”

Did Pocock exist at all? Was Pocock simply an alias of Clace’s? Did Pocock’s tale become entwined with Clace’s over the years?

Or is Pocock’s legend merely a story, passed down through the generations until it became accepted as fact?

And if so, who is the ghostly horseman said to haunt the road between Bridgwater and Street?

“Get more great stories like this delivered to your inbox every day by signing up to one of our newsletters. Don’t miss out!”